UNF student a national leader

By CHERIE BLACKThe Times-Union,

When Todd Uhlman was growing up as an only child in eastern North Carolina, his passion was baseball. The Dodgers, to be exact.

But swinging a bat was just a hobby, and after high school graduation he ventured south, to Orange Park, and moved in with a cousin. Then still a teenager, he hoped Florida could offer him more opportunities than where he grew up.

He eventually found a job at St. Vincent's Medical Center working with nurses. There his passion for nursing was born.

That passion has led him to become the first Florida student named president of the National Student Nurses Association, a nonprofit helping nursing students make it in the professional world.

The year-long term, which began earlier this summer, requires the 32-year-old full-time University of North Florida student to juggle his classwork with numerous speaking engagements, which have already taken him to Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Mississippi.

Todd Uhlman, a nursing student at the University of North Florida, is president of the National Student Nurses Association. BRUCE LIPSKY/The Times-Union

"It's so easy when there's pressure for classes and grades to want time for yourself," said Bill Ahrens, a retired Navy captain and nursing professor at UNF. "He has incredible devotion to anything he's involved with." Yet Uhlman's path to nursing and a high-profile post wasn't a straight one.

When he arrived in Orange Park, he said, he was too immature for college. So he joined the Navy, hoping it would help him grow up.

After four years of active duty and four more in the reserves working as a structural engineer at NAS Jax, he felt he had done just that. He hadn't lost his passion for nursing, so he enrolled in UNF's nursing program in the summer of 2005. He also decided he wanted to become a Naval officer and applied for a prestigious nurse candidate program.

To set himself apart from the other students and other Naval applicants, he immediately joined the Student Nurses Association and looked into becoming an elected officer. In April he was elected vice president at the organization's annual convention. When the president resigned for personal reasons two months later, he became president. But not without reservations.

"When you have a crisis [the organization] can either splinter or bond," he said of when he assumed his post. "I went through a roller coaster of emotions that week."

In part because of his dedication to the organization, the group bonded and continued to thrive. Uhlman also chairs the association's bylaws committee and serves on the executive, finance and community health committees. He was accepted into the Navy's prestigious nurse candidate program and will commit four years to it after graduation.

Tuesday, Uhlman spent his day helping recruit new members during the organization's orientation at UNF. His professors say he is always eager to work behind the scenes and do whatever extra work is needed to improve the organization.

Li Loriz, director of UNF's nursing school, said Uhlman understands the school's dedication to community involvement and promotes that platform when he speaks around the country.

"Nursing is more than just being in a hospital, and he understands that," she said.

Uhlman savors his few spare moments he doesn't focus on nursing. He lives in Mandarin with his wife, Heather, a nurse at St. Vincent's. The couple has an 11-year-old daughter named Victoria who they adopted from Russia two years ago.

And he hasn't forgotten baseball. He umpires high school games and is a local alternate umpire for the Jacksonville Suns.

His family drives him to succeed and achieve more, he said. He wants them to reap the benefits of what he accomplishes.

To be a nurse, he said, you have to be involved. You don't get anywhere just by sitting in a classroom.